One-eyed Riley

It was like seeing the Prince Consort or Gladstone taking the width of the pavement and singing “One-eyed Riley”.


Flashman on the March, p.203, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, pavement.

Troublesome house guests

Admittedly, you can’t have it getting about that her guests have been trying to slaughter each other; the poor woman probably had enough trouble getting people to visit, with Albert about the place.

Flashman in the Great Game, pp.56-7, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Queen Victoria, Prince Albert.

Drive a woman to fury

…he and Victoria weren’t getting on too well just then; she had just discovered (and confided to Elspeth) that she was in foal for the ninth time, and she took her temper out on dear Albert – the trouble was, he was so bloody patient with her, which can drive a woman to fury faster than anything I know. And he was always right, which was worse. So they weren’t dealing at all well, and he spent most of the daylight hours tramping up Glen bollocks, or whatever they call it, roaring ‘Ze gunn!’ and butchering every animal in view.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.23, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Prince Albert, shooting.

Her Britannic Majesty

…but her first glimpse of our royal hosts reduced her awe a trifle, I think. We took a stroll the first afternoon, in the direction of Balmoral, and on the road encounted what seemed to be a family of tinkers led by a small washerwoman and an usher who had evidently pinched his headmaster’s clothes.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.20, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Queen Victoria, Prince Albert.

Endless pictures of German royalty

They don’t often invite me to Balmoral nowadays, which is a blessing; those damned tartan carpets always put me off my food, to say nothing of the endless pictures of German royalty and that unspeakable statue of the Prince Consort standing knock-kneed in a kilt.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.11, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,kilt, Prince Albert.

Menn like Colonel Flash-mann

‘At Rugby School,’ repeated Albert. ‘That is a great English school, Willy,’ says he to the greenhorn, ‘of the kind which turns younk boys like yourself into menn like Colonel Flash-mann here.’ Well, true enough, I’d found it a fair mixture of jail and knocking-shop; I stood there trying to look like a chap who says his prayers in a cold bath every day.

Flashman at the Charge, p.33, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Rugby school, jail,knocking shop.

Well-washed exquisite

I was aware that Albert was speaking, in that heavy, German voice; he was still the cold, well-washed exquisite I had first met 12 years ago, with those frightful whiskers that looked as though someone had tried to pluck them and left off half-way through.

Flashman at the Charge, p.33, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Prince Albert, whiskers.

Pool halls and toad-eating

And I remember thinking, as I waited trembling for the order that would launch me after Lew towards the Light Brigade, where they sat at rest on the turf eight hundred feet below – this, I reflected bitterly, is what comes of hanging about pool halls and toad-eating Prince Albert.

Flashman at the Charge, p.11, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Prince Albert, toad eating,pool halls.

Exceedingly brown

‘You are exceedingly brown,’ says one of the men, and the heavy German accent startled me. I’d noticed him out of the tail of my eye, leaning against the mantel, with one leg crossed over the other. So, this was Prince Albert, I thought; what hellish looking whiskers.

Flashman, p.272, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Prince Albert, whiskers.